Tata Trust, a non-sectarian philanthropic organisation of Tata Group, has tied up with Google India to provide Internet facilities to rural women so that they can use it in their daily lives.

The joint initiative called, Internet Saathi, will empower women and help bridge the technology gender divide in the country considering the fact that only 12 per cent of women in rural India know about or have access to Internet.

The initiative will kick off from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jharkhand and will be rolled out across the country eventually reaching out to over 4,500 villages and 5 lakh women and rural communities across rural India over the next eighteen months.

Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Trusts, in a conference here said that," partnering with Google is a privilege as it is a company that has digitised the entire world."

Through the initiative, women in the rural markets will be provided with specially designed Internet cycle carts, where they can get access to Internet. The internet Cart would be available in the village for a minimum of two days every week for over a period of four to six months.

Once the cart has completed the training in a cluster of three villages, it will be moved to the adjoining cluster for completion of a similar cycle.

These carts are modeled on India's traditional distribution system that is used to carry everything from ice-cream to industrial supplies.

The operator or the "Internet Saathi", who will train the women, would be akin to the village postman who was the single point contact for the village with the outside world both in terms of information as well as communication.

Tata Trusts, with its vast field based ecosystem, will manage the on-ground rollout with its partners whereas Google will invest in providing the Internet-enabled Carts and the training content.

Rajan Anandan, VP and Managing Director of Google South East Asia and India said, “While women are making rapid progress on adoption of Internet in urban areas, women in rural India are getting left behind. We need to come together to address this challenge and empower women in rural India through training and programs that can truly transform their lives."

The initiative will also be supported by Intel who has been a long term partner of Google India’s Helping Women Get Online initiative.

“We believe that the vision of Digital India will empower every Indian citizen with equal opportunities irrespective of cast, creed and gender. At Intel we believe that skill development and innovation are imperative for realizing the Digital India vision and we are very proud to collaborate with Google and Tata Trust on the ‘Helping Women Get Online’ initiative especially as we celebrate the Digital India Week.” said, Debjani Ghosh, Vice President SMG, Managing Director- South Asia, Intel.

Google’s helping women get online is an initiative to create awareness about the benefits of Internet amongst 50 million women in India. Under this initiative, Google conducts various outreach and educational programs. The program includes an awareness module, coupled with hands-on training modules aimed at teaching women how to use the internet, including via mobile devices. Since the launch of this initiative, Google has directly trained over 1.5 million women on the basics of the Internet.

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